


Sync

by sciencefictioness



Series: Legacy [9]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Dissociation, Dragons, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Mentions of Jesse/Gabriel, Mentions of Jesse/Hanzo, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, implied/referenced suicidal ideation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-25 17:03:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18265631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sciencefictioness/pseuds/sciencefictioness
Summary: Genji’s blood was roaring through his veins.His heart pounded, every beat loud in his ears as he pushed himself faster through the back alleys and side streets of downtown.  Faster, faster.  The temple was close.Genji could get there with his eyes closed if he wanted.  Could feel it as much see it, drawing him like gravity; not the same pull it usually had.  Something stronger.Something deeper.Come to the temple.





	Sync

**Author's Note:**

> This piece is not standalone, and is best read after chapter fifteen of Legacy. 
> 
> As always, if you are not a multishipper, these side pieces are probably not for you. 
> 
> Mind the tags, and please enjoy.

Genji’s blood was roaring through his veins.

 

His heart pounded, every beat loud in his ears as he pushed himself faster through the back alleys and side streets of downtown.  Faster, faster. The temple was close.

 

Genji could get there with his eyes closed if he wanted.  Could feel it as much see it, drawing him like gravity; not the same pull it usually had.  Something stronger.

 

Something deeper.

 

_ Come to the temple. _

 

He’d still been in bed when he got Hanzo’s text, stumbling gracelessly to his feet only to fall down in a tangle of sheets and blankets.  Jack and Gabriel had watched him dress in a rush, pulling on the previous day’s clothes, yanking Jack’s old hoodie over his head. Still wearing his day collar, and his bells.  

 

Still in disarray, hair wild and hickeys all over, lips swollen from too many kisses.  Sore from being put through his paces, stiff joints and an achy throat.

 

Tender in places, both within and without; Genji had asked for it, had  _ needed  _ it, but everything had its price.  Usually after a rough scene he’d spend the next day in bed, or being carried around Jack and Gabriel’s apartment.  Gabriel would cook, and Jack would rub his shoulders, and snuggle with him on the couch. All that would have to wait until later.

 

_ Need to show you something. _

 

He’d shoved his feet into his shoes, hopping on one foot and then the other as he pulled them over his heels, hood falling around his face; Genji didn’t bother tying them.  Just flew out the bedroom door without saying goodbye, slamming his shoulder into the doorframe on his way past, staggering out of sight.

 

Then he’d come back, breathless and distracted, and given them both a quick kiss and a mumbled apology before running out again.  

 

Genji felt like shaking out of his skin as the stone wall of the temple came into view, an energy he hadn’t felt in years calling to him from the inner sanctuary.  Midori surged up, lighting his eyes, tattoo flaring under his clothes. Hanzo was there waiting for them. 

 

Not just Hanzo.

 

Hanzo and his dragons.  

 

He scaled the wall between one breath and the next, fingers seeking out the handholds automatically, Midori making him strong and swift and sure.  Genji landed in a crouch, rolling up to his feet and running into the shadowy interior of the temple. There were people in the hallways, and at the altars.  Meditating in the courtyards. Ringing bells, and lighting candles, and Genji did his best not to disturb them as he hurried past them all. He was good at moving quickly, and quietly, and most of them didn’t even notice he was there.

 

Several monks greeted him by name, though, both untroubled and unsurprised by his frantic pace.  He still wasn’t sure  _ how  _ they felt Midori without having the connection he did— how they knew she was there, knew what she was feeling.  He didn’t know how, but he knew they  _ did,  _ and Hanzo’s dragons were evidently no different.  

 

They knew exactly where he Genji was going, and simply smiled and got out of his way.

 

The hallway leading to the innermost sanctuary was deserted; silent but for the loud sound of his breathing, and he paused outside the doors, and laid his palms flat against them.  Pressed his forehead to the wood, eyes closed, sinking into all the sensations swimming through him.

 

Kinship, and family, and home.

 

A feeling of belonging only Hanzo could give him.

 

One Genji ached for, always.

 

He smiled wide and pushed into the sanctuary, Midori shimmering out of his skin before the doors finished closing behind him.

 

Hanzo sat cross legged in front of the altar, sunlight streaming in through the ceiling.  Smiling at Genji— shaky but a little amused.

 

Genuine, but not in the way he wanted, probably.  That mask Hanzo was so good at wearing, as though everything was fine.  It must have been obvious that Genji saw through it, because his smile fell away to leave something like an apology in its wake.  A little bit raw.

 

A little bit terrified, even now.  Genji understood.

 

Sojiro was dead, but Genji had to remind himself, some days; had to look in the mirror with his hands trembling and his eyes bright and picture it in his mind.  Sojiro in pieces.

 

Gone, gone, gone.

 

Except sometimes it was Hanzo, instead— kneeling covered in blood, staring off at nothing,  _ you have to go, Genji, father will find us—  _ and Genji shook himself back into the moment.  Back into the temple, sunlight on his face, familiar walls all around him.

 

Back to Hanzo, who let Aoi and Ruri spring from his lap and scramble across the floor towards him.  They ran into Midori first, all three of them tangling together, sniffing and purring and rubbing their faces on one another.  Ruri pulled away after a moment, closing the distance between them and climbing up his body and into his arms. She  _ cried,  _ an agonizing sound, and Genji could feel her talking to him, wordless sensation pressing at his thoughts.

 

_ Love you, miss you, Genji Genji Genji Genji… _

 

“It’s okay.  I’m here.” 

 

He held her tighter, Hanzo’s eyes on him a tangible thing as he watched Aoi and Midori rolling across the floor together; gnawing at each others ears, scent marking each other’s scales.  Midori was bigger than they were, the two of them lean and pale, frills not as full. She could tell what Genji was thinking, pausing in her tussling with Aoi to look at Genji plaintively, then back at Aoi.  Midori nudged Aoi’s side with her muzzle, then laid down over her protectively and whined.

 

Like she wanted Genji to fix it, somehow.  His eyes stung, throat tight, voice strained when he spoke.

 

“They’re okay.  They’ll get better, they just need some time, yeah?”  Genji glanced at Hanzo, and held his gaze. “Sometimes you just have to be patient.”

 

For a moment Hanzo looked forlorn; lost and alone, even so close.

 

Then Midori crawled into his lap, and he smiled.  This one was genuine; gentle, and adoring, and he looked back up at Genji as he scratched his fingers through her frills.

 

“I’m fine.  I promise.”

 

Aoi had followed Midori over to Hanzo, but now she ran towards Genji and climbed him, circling serpentine around his legs and hips until she was curled around his neck.  Ruri hid her face in his chest, both of them purring, Aoi rubbing her cheeks against his throat.

 

“Yeah.  I missed you, too.”

 

Genji walked past Hanzo and sat down behind him, leaning until he was a steady weight against his back.  

 

Hanzo’s head lolled back onto Genji’s shoulder, and Genji mirrored the gesture, and closed his eyes.

 

-

 

The walk back to Jack and Gabe’s was longer when he wasn’t running full tilt, heedless of everything around him.  He shoved his hands in his pockets, letting himself revel in Midori’s happiness. Aoi and Ruri were her sisters as surely as Hanzo was his brother, and she’d been missing them for most of her life.  

 

Hanzo sat with him a while, let their dragons play together, neither of them speaking.  There was too much to say, and Genji wasn’t sure how much of it Hanzo was ready to hear.  

 

Genji was always pushing too hard without realizing it.  Forcing Hanzo to bend, and then break. He was one of the strongest people Genji knew, and they’d both lived through things that should have buried them, but surviving had left its marks.

 

Left places that would give if someone pushed too hard; foundations waiting to swallow Hanzo whole.  He’d come a long way; backsliding would be so easy.

 

Those fumbling steps in wrong direction felt like coming home, sometimes.  Pulling on old clothes to find that they still fit, worn in all the right places.  

 

Genji knew better than anyone.

 

Hanzo might not be ready to listen to what Genji needed to say, but Jesse could hear him out.

 

He owed Genji that much.  

 

When Genji got to Jack and Gabe’s apartment building, he headed for the garage instead of the elevator.  There were a half-dozen spaces that belonged to Gabriel, every car there sleek and fast and ridiculous.

 

Genji headed to the second one down the row— all of them would open with a press of his thumbprint, but Gabriel had painted this one a deep, shimmering green.  Not for Genji, he insisted, then never drove it again, fitting it with a sound system full of neon leds and a sticker of a sparrow on the back window. Just a silhouette, simple and minimalistic.

 

Genji climbed in, and roared out of the garage, music far too loud as he headed towards the suburbs.

 

-

 

He’d never been in Jesse’s place before; there had never been a reason.  They’d interacted but it had never gone all that well. 

 

Once Genji realized who he was, anyway; there was too much history.  Too many brittle stories, too many old wounds.

 

He’d been hearing about Jesse long before he laid eyes on him.  Seeing all the scars he’d left behind, etched into Gabriel in places Genji couldn’t touch.  Etched into Jack, too, even if he hid it better, and they weren’t as deep.

 

Hanzo had enough scars already; he didn’t need any more from Jesse.  

 

Genji thought about how Hanzo had been when he’d first shown up after leaving the clan, hollow eyed and haunted, laying in Genji’s bed and staring at the wall for hours.  For  _ days. _  Thought about him back in Hanamura, bruises under his clothes and the ache of freshly healed bones making him careful with every movement.  Busted lips and cold hands and sometimes when Genji looked into his eyes there was no one there. 

 

Even now there were days when Genji looked at Hanzo and there was nobody looking back, if only for a moment.

 

It would be so easy to fuck up.  To say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing.

 

To leave Hanzo gutted without trying.  

 

Jesse might know about their dragons, but Hanzo was always good at hiding things.  It wasn’t Jesse’s fault he didn’t have all the information. Hanzo would tell him, little by little.  Only a few months had passed and he was already breaking through Hanzo’s defenses.

 

Genji thought of all the hours he’d spent scrubbing blood off Hanzo’s hands.  Urging him to eat, to drink, to sleep, to bathe. Calling his name again and again, palm on his cheek, waiting for his eyes refocus.  

 

Waiting on Hanzo to come back from wherever he’d drifted, terrified he might not this time.

 

Finding him with a knife pressed to his wrist looking viciously determined, more alive than Genji had seen him in years.

 

Genji had been tearing himself to pieces trying to help Hanzo, and Jesse had done it effortlessly; that was okay.  It was good— Hanzo needed Jesse. Needed someone to make him feel safe, and wanted.

 

Someone who didn’t have their father’s face, and voice, and hands; Genji had always favored Sojiro.  

 

Had always hated himself for it.

 

Genji didn’t want to chase Jesse off— Hanzo could make his own choices, live his own life, take care of himself.

 

Genji still needed to make some things clear, though, which was why he was perched cross-legged on the back of Jesse’s couch.  

 

A day collar and temple bells and an empty space across his back where his katana used to always be; Genji popped his neck, and rolled his shoulders, and waited.

 

Jesse emerged from his bathroom a few minutes later in a cloud of steam, towel wrapped around his hips, singing off-key.  He was headed towards his bedroom, but then he stopped in the hallway, brows furrowed as caught sight of Genji on the couch.

 

“Uhhhh… hey there, Genji.  Thought you was s’posed to be meeting with your brother.  Everything alright?” Jesse paused in the doorway and leaned against the frame.

 

“Hanzo is fine.  He is at home, waiting for you.”  Genji looked up at Jesse, shrugging.  “He doesn’t know I’m here.”

 

Genji hadn’t recognized the worry in Jesse’s face until it faded away.  He’d thought something was wrong with Hanzo, and was relieved. Even Genji showing up in his living room uninvited was less alarming than Hanzo being in trouble, and something in Genji softened even further.

 

“Alright then.  Guessin’ you got something to say, being as you broke into my house to say it.”

 

“Is it breaking in if the door is unlocked?  Unauthorized entry, maybe.”

 

A guttural rumble echoes through the room.  Midori creeps out from the other side of the couch, the size of a Doberman with teeth twice as long, claws clicking on the floor.  Bigger than she needed to be; louder, more beastly.

 

She didn’t get to be scary very often anymore.  Genji could feel the giddy excitement rolling off her in waves, and it was hard not to smile.  

 

“I know you care about Hanzo.  I know you’re not going to hurt him on purpose, and most of the people I love would take a bullet for you.  I don’t know you like they do, and I want to trust to their judgement, but Hanzo has been through… a lot. More than you can imagine.  I’m not here to threaten you—”

 

Jesse cut him off, brow cocked up.

 

“Dragon needs some exercise, or,” he asked looking meaningfully at Midori where she was still snarling at him.  Genji grinned, and shrugged again.

 

“She likes to be fierce.  She doesn’t get to very often anymore.”  Genji stood, sinking a hand in Midori’s frills, watching her instead of Jesse.  She calmed under his gentle petting, and then he met Jesse’s eyes again. “Hanzo is my brother, and he’s been through hell, and I need you to be careful with him.  More careful than you think you need to be. More careful than  _ he  _ thinks you need to be.”

 

“Think he can take care of himself just fine,” Jesse said.

 

“Just because he can doesn’t mean he will.”

 

Jesse sucked air through his teeth, still casually leaned up against the wall.

 

“Couldn’t’ve called me on the phone to tell me this?  Cornered me at the club or somethin’?”

 

Genji grinned again, bells at his throat ringing as he crossed to room to stand by the door.  Midori trailed after him, still watching Jesse like a hawk.

 

“Felt like something I should say in person, and if I’m at the club, Gabriel is there too.  You know how the two of you get.”

 

Jesse cocked his head.

 

“Do I now?”

 

Genji laughed, dark and humorless.

 

“You definitely do.  Text him back, yeah? He misses you.”

 

He didn’t wait for an answer.  Just slipped out the door, Midori vanishing back into his skin in a shimmer of light, euphoric and preening.   She was excited for Genji to tell Gabriel and Jack how scary she’d been; how big, and loud, and terrifying.

 

He didn’t have the heart to tell her it would have to be their little secret for a while.  If Gabriel found out he’d been to see Jesse, he’d get quiet and broody for days. Genji thought about Gabriel, and about Hanzo, and wondered if Jesse was half as grateful as he should be for them.  If he appreciated what he had now. 

 

If he knew the depth of the things he’d left behind.  

 

How they lingered, waiting on his return.

 

Genji slid back into the driver’s seat of Gabriel’s car— his car— and steered it back downtown.  Gabriel’s favorite song came on, and Genji smiled, and turned it up.

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me nice things, or come yell at me on [twitter.](https://twitter.com/scifictioness?lang=en)


End file.
